Blackboards

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Makhmalbaf continues her rise as Iran's most promising young female filmmaker, and Iranian cinema extends its reign as one of the world's most exciting cultural phenomena.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The stripped-down dramatic constructs, austere imagery and abstract characters are equal parts poetry and politics, obvious at times but evocative and heartfelt.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Makhmalbaf finds room for moments of humor and humanity.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Like so much Iranian cinema, Blackboards is a work of lyrical propaganda. But its metaphors are opaque enough to avoid didacticism, and the film succeeds as an emotionally accessible, almost mystical work.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

An indelible and ultimately moving vision of humanity buffeted by the elements and by international political tides.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A fascinating allegory of life in Iranian Kurdistan, a remote borderland still deeply scarred by years of war with Iraq.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Director Samira Makhmalbaf made this raw and effective parable with the recognizable help of her father, legendary director Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Slyly powerful.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Like many other Iranian films, Blackboards counters the generally broadcast ideas about this part of the world. It is a testament of quiet endurance, of common concern, of reconciled survival.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

We've got the trademark elements but not their magical bonding, and the result is a selection of scenes in search of a movie.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Episodic and minimalist to a fault, Blackboards makes its ironic point about education, then makes it again a few times over for good measure, rarely expanding beyond its narrow seriocomic agenda.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Blackboards is both shrill and soporific, and because everything is repeated five or six times, it can seem tiresomely simpleminded.

Film Threat Phil Hall

About as much fun as a grouchy ayatollah in a cold mosque.